Wednesday, August 1, 2012

New logo: Air Malta

Air Malta, the national airline of Malta, unveiled a new corporate identity yesterday, July 31, at an event called "The Flying Pride of Malta". It comes with new livery and is part of a restructuring to turn the loss-making airline around. The colourful livery has the tailfin and the back of the fuselage painted red with different colours inserted. The front has the word "Malta" in large red letters.

The rebrand work was carried out by Futurebrand in London who were hired earlier this year. Local media are reporting that they were paid €400,000.

Air Malta's previous livery and corporate identity was introduced in late 1989. The planes will be repainted from November.

Previous logo.

Other than the livery and the low-res logo seen on the top of this page, Air Malta has not yet released that much of the new corporate identity programme.

Two historical logos:

An Air Malta logo from the 70s, probably the airline's first.

Alternative marketing logo introduced around ~2008. It was withdrawn later on and was apparently not used on planes.

Update August 6: Futurebrand have now revealed more images and details on the Air Malta rebrand. A portion of Futurebrand's explanation is republished below:

The unique attributes of being Maltese and of what Malta offers the business and leisure traveller was the inspiration behind a creative concept of ‘Maltese Fusion’ to represent of all the unique cultural, visual and sensorial influences of Malta, in collaboration with the new dynamic and future focused positioning of the airline. The brand now represents the best of all of the Maltese Islands – the people, traditions, cuisine and culture – to create the new future of Air Malta.

Importantly Malta is not just formed of one island, so the airline is no longer just Air Malta but ‘The Airline of the Maltese Islands’. We used this unique statement to develop a strap line and font that represents the country’s warmth, diversity, personality and also to excite and inspire. Combined with the prominent use of the word ‘Malta’ on the aircraft fuselage, the airline now is an overt flying advertisement and ambassador for the nation.

The Maltese cross is at the heart of the new identity. For an airline, iconography is critical to create a unique and distinctive impression. With this in mind, there is more pride and prominence with how the cross is applied across the livery, and the shape features graphic patterns that are derived from and represent the true diversity of the Maltese Islands.

The traditional red and white colours of Malta have been infused with the colours blue, yellow, white gold, orange and green, which reflect the sun, sand and sea, the famously vibrant and colourful annual Festas, carnivals and fireworks displays and the colourful Luzzu fishing boats that can be seen in many harbours and bays around the islands.